The Work Out
by Loopstagirl
Summary: "All you do is sit around waiting for rescues." Alan should have known saying something like that was a red flag to a bull. There was no way his brothers were going to let the insult slide.


_Disclaimer: I own nothing, all rights belong to their respective owners._

_I'm loving re-watching these, it's giving me so many ideas. This was based on Alan's line when he moans about the others sitting around doing nothing but waiting for rescues in Day of Disaster._

* * *

Scott wrenched the curtains back with a grin, his smirk widening as he heard Alan groan from beneath the covers. He turned in time to see his brother put the pillow over his head.

"Oh no you don't, you're getting up," Scott said, moving across the room to pull back the covers and tear the pillow away from Alan's grip. The look on the younger man's face just made him laugh even harder, eyes sparkling with mirth.

"What are you doing?" Alan groaned, not yet awake enough to truly think of a good comeback. Scott lifted an eyebrow as he stared down at his youngest brother.

"I believe you said something yesterday along the lines of thinking that we all just sit around. I thought I would show you that wasn't the case."

"Scott…" Hearing the usual whine in Alan's voice, Scott reached down. Grabbing his brother's arm, he literally pulled Alan from his bed.

"You're the fit one, aren't you?" He mocked, shoving his brother towards the bathroom. "Should be easy for you. Chance to show us all up."

He knew the second he said it he had got through to Alan. He was a Tracy; there was no way he would turn down any sort of challenge. Sleep seemed to fall from Alan as he straightened up and Scott nodded approvingly.

"Meet me in the kitchen in ten minutes."

Giving his brother some privacy, Scott left. He knew Alan would be there. There weren't many times where the youngest was given the chance to get one over his older brothers. The grin didn't leave Scott's face as he moved from the room though. Alan was going to be in for a nasty surprise if he truly thought all they did all day was sit around waiting for rescues. Gordon's door was partly open and Scott winked at his brother as he moved past. It had been Gordon's idea in the first place and the redhead grinned enthusiastically. If there was one thing that all four older brothers agreed on, it was that Alan didn't stand a chance.

It took Alan the full ten minutes to reach the kitchen and Scott had to fight back his laughter when he saw the running outfit his brother was wearing. He refrained from commenting though, knowing that he was going to get all the gloating time in the world when this was over. Probably while he still waited for Alan to catch up with him.

"Let's go," leading the way from the house, Scott moved down to his usual beach. It wasn't the longest run in the world, but considering it was flat and he didn't have to worry about the rocks, it meant he was able to pick up some speed. It would be the perfect test. Telling Alan what they were doing, Scott flexed his legs before bracing himself and setting off at a run. He paced himself, knowing that this was still his morning routine even with Alan there.

It didn't take him long to complete his usual circuit, coming to a smooth stop next to the same rock he had set out from. Shaking himself to ease the muscles, Scott shielded his eyes as he stared back along the beach, looking for Alan. He thought he had gone at a steady speed, but his younger brother was still halfway down the beach, a good ten minutes or so behind him.

When he did finally reach Scott, it was a panting heap of a brother that flopped down upon the sand. Alan glared up at him as Scott tried to help him control his breathing and the older brother backed up with his hands raised.

"What do you honestly expect if you wear something like that?" he quipped, gesturing to Alan's outfit. Alan's glare deepened but Scott ignored it as he set off back to the house, knowing he had made his point.

But while Scott had driven the message home, that didn't mean the rest of the brothers were going to let the insult slide.

Early the next morning found Alan's watch beeping insistently until he finally jabbed a button. John grinned, glad to have eventually made contact.

"Up you get," he said cheerfully, setting a few things on automatic as he slipped out of his command chair and rolled his shoulders to make sure he was ready for this.

"For what?" Alan moaned, glaring at the watch. John let his hand slide back over to the control panel. Little did Alan know that Gordon was waiting just outside in order to get him up if he refused.

"To show me that you are the one who doesn't sit around all day waiting for rescues, of course," John responded innocently. He thought Alan might have refused after his somewhat humiliating defeat at Scott's hands yesterday, but the challenge relit itself in his brother's eyes. It was clear that although one sibling had bested him, he still thought he could get the upper hand over John. After all, what else was there to do up on Five apart from sit around waiting for rescues?

Alan dressed and John found himself clicking his tongue impatiently. He wanted to get this over with so he could get back to his day. It was already bad enough he had had to change his schedule to do this later in order to get Alan to join in. But there was no way he was going to let his younger brother think that he was in any way, shape or form fitter, especially considering John did less field work than the rest of them as it was.

He was ready for this.

After instructing Alan what they were going to do, John paced them through a series of work-out exercises he went through every morning. He didn't have to move from his spot, but it was enough to make his heart pound and his blood move that little bit faster. It was enough to make him feel alive and before long, he forgot about Alan as he lost himself to the movement. This was easy for him, it was what he did every morning.

But as he finally stood back up again from his final sit-ups, John found himself staring at the screen in front of him in surprise. He still had Alan's watch on visual, yet he was almost certain that the view he was getting back was one of Alan's ceiling.

"You okay?" John asked cautiously, slightly worried by the laboured breathing that he could hear coming from the other end.

"I'm…good," Alan tried to say, but it came out more as breathless pants than actual words. Deciding to give his brother just a few moments, John went to change. But by the time he came back, Alan was still lying on the floor.

"You do realise that Dad and Brains set that routine up for whoever was up on Five to keep us in shape? I thought you did it when you took your rota…" He let his voice trail off, trying not to sound accusing but knowing that Alan would probably pick up on it anyway. The angle of the ceiling changed slightly and John knew that his brother had tilted his watch away to make sure it didn't catch his face – probably because he was blushing.

"I just haven't been up there for a while."

"You were up here last week," John sat down, beginning to bring up feeds and information that was being beamed up to him from various points around the planet. He could still work even while Alan was recovering. Part of him wanted to get on because he had things to do. The other part of him, however, just wanted to make the point they had done exactly the same thing and while Alan was still trying to recover, John was moving on.

"We might sit around for rescues, Al, but that doesn't mean we aren't all in shape," he said softly, only to laugh when he was abruptly cut off from his brother. He would get Gordon to let him know if Alan was okay later on in the day. He didn't really care right now. The kid had brought it upon himself. If he had honestly thought he would be able to get away with saying something like that, then he clearly didn't know the rest of them as well as he thought. There was no way that they would have let it go.

The next day, Alan was granted a lie in. Not because his brothers were letting him off the hook at all, but because Virgil couldn't be bothered to get out of bed early just to put Alan through his paces. It was clear from the relief in Alan's eyes when Virgil stumbled down for breakfast that he thought it was over. Even as he poured himself a coffee, Virgil eyed him carefully.

"I need to go out and check the satellite," he said casually, exchanging smirks with Scott. "Do you fancy giving me a hand?"

Alan's face lit up, clearly thinking that it was a good thing Virgil had chosen him over Scott. Virgil hid his grin; Alan had no idea what was coming.

"Wear something you can move in, it's not an easy climb."

"Climb?" There was an alarmed tone in Alan's voice, but Virgil simply grinned and headed upstairs to get changed.

An hour later, and he had just finished checking Alan's harness. If he wasn't mistaken, there was a paleness to Alan's cheeks as he stared up at the looming rock face in front of them. Virgil might not have routines the way his brothers did, but he had his own ways of keeping fit. Rubbing some grit onto his hands, he grinned with excitement at the challenge ahead of them.

"Ready?"

"Wait… We're not taking the hover slides?"

"Does it look like we're taking the hover slides? Come on, race you to the top." Stretching up, Virgil tested the ropes one last time and began to climb. It was thirsty work with the sun beating down, but he soon lost himself to the rhythm of searching for the next hold, transferring his weight and moving up. He knew it took an hour or so to climb the rock face and he planned to enjoy it.

Scott usually came with him, their father not being happy about any of the boys climbing alone. But this was a different sort of work out to what Alan was used to and Virgil was curious to see how he would manage. He glanced down a few times to check on his brother's progress, but knew it was better to just leave him to it. This was the sort of workout where Alan had to concentrate on what he was doing rather than just reacting.

Once he had reached the top, Virgil hauled his gear up and took a swig of water. Feeling his heart rate calm, he stretched out for a moment just to enjoy the sunshine and the peace and quiet up here. But as the minutes stretched on and Alan still didn't appear over the top, the artist rolled over. Peering down, he saw Alan clinging to the rock, clearly out of breath and having worked himself into a dead end.

"Hang on," Virgil called down cheerfully, quickly making a loop out of Alan's rope, draping it around himself and bracing his own body. "Push off with your legs, I'll pull you up."

Hand over hand, Virgil steadily pulled until Alan finally emerged over the top. Virgil stepped forward to help, but was batted away.

"Shut up," Alan muttered.

"I didn't say anything."

"You didn't have to, just shut up."

Virgil grinned and set about checking the satellite. Once he was around the other side, however, he put in a call to Scott to bring the hover slides over so Alan would actually make it to the house again. He didn't think suggesting his brother climb down would go down too well.

The next morning, Gordon had a grin on his face almost before his eyes opened. Leaping out of bed, he quickly stretched out his back, dressed and went to tip his younger brother out of bed. It came as no surprise that Alan fought, still not over the embarrassment of the day before. For that matter, Gordon wasn't sure he had recovered from the week as a whole. But he had been waiting eagerly for his turn to prove himself and wasn't going to let a petulant brother stop him.

Alan's struggles simply forced Gordon to put his brother over his shoulder and literally carry him downstairs, not stopping until they were outside. The fresh air seemed to revive Alan a little as Gordon tipped him back on his feet.

"Let me guess, we're going for a swim?" Alan asked wearily and Gordon grinned.

"Shouldn't be hard considering how fit you are." Knowing that Alan was about to run, Gordon simply shoved and sent his brother flying into the water, slipping in himself and waiting for Alan to stop spluttering.

"It's only for an hour, Al, shouldn't be that hard."

Alan seemed a little mollified by that as he swam to the edge to reach Gordon.

"Just an hour?"

"Don't get in my way," Gordon said with a grin, pushing off and beginning to lose himself to the momentum of his strokes. Although he usually just swam until he heard movement in the house and knew that someone else was up, Gordon had set a timer this time around, knowing he couldn't risk completely exhausting his brother. But at least he knew Alan was a strong swimmer, he wouldn't have to keep an eye on him the way Virgil had been forced to do at the rocks.

At least, so Gordon thought.

Half an hour must have passed and Gordon had a steady rhythm going when he felt the water moving somewhat disturbingly. Straightening up, it only took him a glance before he was at Alan's side, wrapping his arm around his brother's chest and forcing him to lean back on him.

"Stitch," Alan muttered through clenched teeth and Gordon grimaced sympathetically even as he towed him over to the side and helped him get out.

"You weren't breathing properly," he lightly scolded, forcing his brother to get his breathing under control now and knowing it was the only thing that would help. Once he was sure that Alan wasn't about to keel over on him, Gordon slipped back into the water and completed another twenty lengths before climbing out and returning to his brother.

"Come on, shower," he murmured, helping Alan up and grimacing slightly at the defeated posture of his only younger sibling. But he couldn't really feel sorry for him, not when Alan had brought it upon himself. The two Tracys returned to the house and quickly got cleaned up, joining the others for breakfast.

The whole family were in the lounge later that day when John's portrait suddenly flashed. Scott and Gordon looked up from the game they had been playing while Virgil's hands faltered on the piano. John started to report before he seemed to get distracted by something and he broke off, laughing.

Eventually, the rest of the family followed his gaze to find Alan curled up on the sofa, fast asleep. Scott picked up a blanket and tucked it over him with a smile on his face.

"Amazing how much hard work it is sitting around waiting for rescues, isn't it?" He murmured softly. They all knew now that Alan would certainly think twice before saying something like that again.


End file.
